A necessary response

A necessary response to Lloyd Hoffman’s 7/23/2016 letter to the editor in the Hot Springs Sentinel Record…

Antonio Sabato Jr. may be a “strong” Christian, whatever a strong Christian is according to Brother Lloyd, but let’s not forget that Junior is mostly semi-famous for modeling underwear. He and his frothy rants at Donald Trump’s recent coronation will soon be forgotten. And he’s hardly a “popular” Hollywood personality either, unless being an occasional man-meat pinup in soap operas and a few cheesy reality shows is all it takes to be “popular” these days.

No, Junior’s popularity and his “strong” Christianity are a lot like Trump’s. They exist only in the fevered imaginations of Republicans who hide their moral hypocrisy by projecting whatever puritan reality they want to believe in, on some of the most intemperate, insensitive, boorish men and women ever to slash and pillage their way to national political prominence. Maybe that’s what Brother Lloyd means by a “strong” Christian…

All political parties change over time. Thank God, or whatever your fringy, fundamentalist projection of deity is, that the Democratic Party (there is no such thing as a “Democrat” Party, little brother) is not what it was way back in the 1950s, or even 1980 when you read some outlandish article that sounds like the usual John Birch paranoid rubbish now reborn as standard Tea Party dogma. The Democratic party has moved on – racism and anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim, anti-everything but an infantile fawning after a “strong” Christian America that only ever existed in an imaginary, lily-white “good old days” – these are left-behind regressions now wholly owned by today’s Republicans.

Let’s not ever forget that “Tail-gunner Joe” McCarthy was one of your precious Republicans. Like you, that self-aggrandizing and unabashed liar also prattled endlessly about communists under every rock and around every corner. And like the GOP’s newest nominee, a schoolyard bully now carefully coiffed and surrounded by his silver-spooned brood, McCarthy successfully peddled outrageous lies and dangerous exaggerations. He achieved momentary fame and power, but he also destroyed many lives and careers. Is that what you pray for America? If so, come, let us go down together and worship the golden calves of strength and safety. McCarthy did not make America safe or strong then, and a Trump presidency now will only make America fearful and weak.

Once upon a long time ago, there was a gentle man, a carpenter’s son, who lived in the village of Nazareth. In Palestine. He was never a “strong” Christian but he was the Prince of Peace. You may have even heard of him, little brother. He didn’t have to check in first with Senator Boozman to suffer little children to come to him…

But these days, it’s the “strong” Christian thing to do, to keep out suffering little children at all costs. May God forgive our damnable apathy. May She forgive the way we have tortured the meaning of Christianity into something so cruel and selfish and warlike not even Jesus would recognize it. May She forgive us for sowing death and discord here and abroad, and for ravaging the only planet that can sustain life. All life.

May She forgive this generation especially, for so easily, eagerly discarding American ideals that once held out a promise of salvation to the world’s tired, its poor, its huddled masses yearning to breathe free. There was a time, once upon a time, when such words did not ring hollow, when words like “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore” were not seen as a call to arms.

PPS – There are many people who do not believe in biological evolution, but if they wish to follow evidence of literary evolution, take a look below at my third attempt and re-submission to our local newspaper…

Democrats mirror Communist Party

Dear editor:

One of the speakers at the Republican Convention Monday evening was a popular young Hollywood actor named Antonio Sabato Jr., a very strong supporter of Donald Trump as well as the Republican Party. He moved here in 1985 from Rome, Italy, as a legal immigrant.

Antonio is also a strong Christian who believes that Jesus would have him stand up for Trump and the Republican Party. He said that he used to be a Democrat, but that now the Democratic Party is not what it used to be. These days he said that the party seems to be made up far too much with liberals and socialists. He was also sad to see how America has fallen in practically every measure under Obama and the Democrats!A group of liberal Hollywood actors who don’t support Trump as Antonio does, have said they would move to Canada if he becomes our next president. I really think that’s what they should do! (Poor Canada.)

Getting back to how much the Democratic Party has changed in recent years, I doubt if very many of you were aware of an article that appeared on a back page of this newspaper in 1980. It told about how the Communist Party in America realized that they were not making much progress in our country, so they decided to make a comparison of both the Republican Party and the Democrat Party.

They concluded after their study that the philosophy of the Democrat Party was much more like that of the Communist Party, so they then proceeded to quietly infiltrate that party. After that, the party began to become even more liberal and less Christian in its platform and agenda than ever before. Remember how God got booed repeatedly and loudly at the last Democratic Convention?

The Communist Party didn’t even bother to run a candidate for president when Obama ran both times, since they were so satisfied with him. Obama has a Marxist background and is easily the most radical liberal we’ve ever had in the White House!

Remember the avowed communist Van Jones, who Obama appointed as one of his czars for awhile? How about the socialist Bernie Sanders, who the Democrats seem so proud of?

If Hillary should become our next president (God forbid!), we will undoubtedly get more of the same radical, left-wing government that America has suffered under for eight long years! In some ways, she might even be worse than Obama, like her proposed 550 percent increase in the Muslims from Syria who can’t be properly checked out to insure against more radical Islamic terrorists coming over here to kill us!

Liberal letter writer Stephen Orr Manning recently wrote (Saturday, July 9) that “contrary to (Robert) Sowell’s assertions, Middle East immigrants are among the most heavily screened.” That’s certainly not what Sen. John Boozman recently said. He stated, “The administration says it is checking their records, but the FBI will tell you there aren’t any records. If we’re not sure if they pose a risk or not, we don’t need to bring them in. Period.”

Let’s make America safe and strong again. Vote for Trump!

Lloyd Hoffman
Hot Springs

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The day after, on 7/24/2016, another hysterical Hoffman (a member of Brother Lloyd’s tribe?) had this short, very silly rant in the paper, titled “Remember Benghazi.” It’s always ironic that these same people who fixate on this incident seem to have conveniently forgotten the security lapses of 9-11 and the disastrous “little” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… I guess 4 dead Americans in Libya trumps 3000 dead in NYC and Washington DC, and 4000 dead in Iraq, not counting the half million of “them” we killed or the millions more we maimed or forced into exile…

Remember Benghazi

Dear editor:

I must respond to Linda Woodbury’s letter of Monday, July 18, 2016.

I wonder how you would have felt if you had learned that your son had been crying out for help over and over again that night in Benghazi because he was in the situation our ambassador, two of our SEALs and other soldiers found themselves — crying out to Hillary — and she had the power at her fingertips to save their lives and she wouldn’t because she (and Obama) were more concerned with their images than with saving those men.

They stood to the end to do the job they had been given to do and she let them burn to death. That’s exactly what happened!

Probably too late to be relevant, this is the version, at just under 500 words (when you ignore that salutation and sign-off), just submitted to the newspaper this July 28 2016 CE a little after 1:00 PM CST…

Dear editor,

Come, let us leave the high smoke and thunder of Mount Sinai, my brother. Let us go down and worship your golden calves of “strength and safety.”

But first a riddle: What did an Italian underwear model and a certain paragon of bombastic pomposity recently have in common? Answer: Both gave frothy but forgettable speeches to a roused rabble in Cleveland. And according to compulsive letter writers desperate to explain the inexplicable, both are somehow “strong” Christians.

“Strong” Christian. It is a distinction without merit, a distinction of imagined piety foisted upon even the notoriously impious. That fig leaf of presumptive saintliness has certainly been pasted onto the preening figure of Donald J. Trump, one of the most nakedly intemperate, insensitive, boorish men ever to slash and pillage his way to national political prominence. A “strong” Christian indeed…

My brother, you may be a prophet of some repute among your own tribesmen, but your lamentations strike a peculiar chord in the real world. The Democratic Party has indeed moved on since 1980, the year you stumbled onto that back-page, John Birch paranoia. Voter suppression, racism and misogyny, anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim, anti- everything but an infantile fawning after a patriarchal, sanctimonious “good old days” that never really existed, except maybe for a privileged few – these and more are left-behind regressions now fully embraced by your Republican Party of 2016.

Your precious party has hardly changed. “Tail-gunner Joe” McCarthy was also a Republican much like Trump. He was a self-aggrandizing and unabashed liar who peddled fear of communism to destroy the lives and careers of many innocents. Did his callous pursuit of fame and power, fleeting as it was, make him a “strong” Christian? Is that what you pray for America? McCarthy did not make America safe or strong then. Your petulant Trump will not do so now.

Once upon a long time ago, there was a gentle man, a carpenter’s son, who lived in a faraway land we now know as Palestine. He was never a “strong” Christian and he didn’t aspire to political greatness. Chances are, you may have heard of him, this brown-skinned, Palestinian Prince of Peace. He suffered little children to come to him. And he didn’t bother to check in first with Senator Boozman.

These days, it’s the “strong” Christian thing to do, to keep out suffering children. We’ll even build a wall, a beautiful wall! May God forgive our damnable apathy. We have tortured the meaning of Christianity into something so cruel and selfish and warlike not even Jesus of Nazareth would recognize it today. And we have easily, even eagerly discarded the lofty notion that America will always welcome the world’s tired, its poor, its huddled masses yearning to breathe free…

There was a time, once upon a time, when such words did not ring hollow, when words like “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore” were not seen as a call to arms. What has happened to us, America? What have we become?

Maybe the third time’s the charm… Here is the version I reworked and resubmitted last night, Thursday, August 11, 2016. Maybe this version will get printed. Folks, I have a serious alliteration addiction. Feel free to donate to my alliteration addiction abatement alliance. All proceeds will be absolutely and appropriately squandered on all manner of self-serving frivolity. Guaranteed…

PS — it was in the paper on Monday, August 15 2016 CE.

Dear editor,

Brothers and sisters! Let us leave the high smoke and thunder of Sinai. Our bellies are bursting with your cold stone tablets and stone-cold commandments. Besides, it looks like they’re having a lot more fun down there in the fringy lowlands. Come, let us join your roused rabble dervishly dancing in the thick air below. Swirling, twirling around America’s golden calves of strength and safety…

Yes, comrades, make America safe and strong! Again. And great. Again. Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi. Repent, America, we’re teetering on the edge of utter destruction! Follow me, boys! Only my particular, peculiar path to salvation will guarantee you a place in my particular, peculiar version of paradise.

Oh, ye prophets of prattling preachery, you who waste much ink with your quarrelsome prophecies, your lamentations are loud but ludicrous. Where are justice and mercy? Where is love?

You foist imagined piety onto even the notoriously impious, fig leaves to cover the nakedly intemperate and boorish. In the dim light of your small world, only Republicans are “strong” Christians. The Democratic Party has forever forsaken its once glorious past.

Except that the past wasn’t so glorious for some people. And it’s your own grand, inglorious party where the old times there were long ago forgotten. Look away, look away, Mister Lincoln! Look away, General Eisenhower.

All that remains is a wild voice in the wilderness proclaiming fear and loathing of Muslims and Mexicans. A new and wholly unimproved reincarnation of “Tail-gunner Joe” McCarthy, who shamelessly peddled paranoia more than 60 years ago. McCarthy’s ruthless march to infamy did not make America safe or strong. Pompous, preening petulance will not do so today.

Long ago, in a faraway land, there was a gentle man, a carpenter’s son. He was never a “strong” Christian and he didn’t aspire to political greatness. He was a brown-skinned, suffering Palestinian Prince of Peace, and he suffered little children to come to him.

But in these enlightened times, such compassion is only a quaint relic. In the name of strength and safety, we’re going to build a wall, a beautiful wall. Suffering children keep out!

May God forgive our damnable apathy. We have twisted and tortured Christianity into something so cruel and selfish and warlike not even Jesus of Nazareth would recognize it anymore. The world’s tired, its poor, its huddled masses yearning to breathe free are no longer welcome here…

Emma Lazarus wrote those words in 1883, for a famous statue in New York Harbor. Did she know America would come to hate immigrants when she wrote “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore?” Could she have ever imagined that their mere mention would become a cheap slogan, a call to arms to fight them over there, not here, to satisfy our manly itching for apocalypse now?

America, once upon a time, we were a beacon of hope and hospitality for the stranger, the refugee, the suffering child. America, we used to be better than this.

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